Definition of civic engagement

I have been thinking about the definition of civic engagement, somewhat spurred because I have had some reason to return to Peter Levine's definition, which, at one point, at least, he defines as "behavior that influences public matters" (2007, p7). I've been thinking especially about the issue of how self-interested action settles in here. He argues for the inclusion of self-interested action in a definition of civic engagement, noting that there are positive benefits that come from self interested action. I'm not convinced. First, I think it is important to note a point that he makes, which is that "it is a mistake to assume that participation is always narrowly self-interested" (p7). I'm with him there and wondering if it might point us to a different perspective, one informed by a civic republican vision, which might say something like civic engagement is any action that is publicly minded. What I mean here is that it is something that, in the action, takes public matters into account. Under this definition, an individual might be acting in her own self-interest, but it is not solely self-interested. I think this might take into account the fact that our actions are rarely purely altruistic or purely self-interested. Too often, in discussions like this, this sort of dichotomy is set up, but I don't find it to be realistic. This definition might also address the concern that I have about defining civic engagement as simply action that impacts public matters, because then any action, so long as it impacts public matters, can be considered a form of civic engagement, even if the individual is consistently acting purely on self-interest. This idea is drawing somewhat on the concept of publicly minded action, but also on the idea of reciprocity. For action to be civicly engaged, the actor must recognize the necessity to be able to offer some public justification. This is an idea that I am taking from political theory and it has usually been used to define legitimate state action. There is a jump here to apply this to individuals, but I think we might stand it on the fact that most action taken has impacts on the public sphere, even many of the purportedly private actions (smoking & second hand smoke might be an obvious example of the sort of thing I am thinking of here).

Levine, P. (2007). The future of democracy: Developing the next generation of American citizens. Medford: Tufts University Press.